RAID arrays are logical representations of disk arrays created by binding individual physical disks together to form the RAID arrays. RAID arrays represent a logically contiguous address space distributed across a set of physical disks. Each physical disk is subdivided into pieces used to spread the address space of the RAID array across the array (along with parity information if applicable to the RAID level). The physically contiguous pieces of the physical disks that are joined together to create the logically contiguous address space of the RAID array are called stripes.
Applications (clients) access and store data incrementally in RAID arrays using logical storage array partitions, known as logical units (LUNs). LUNs are exported from a RAID array for use at the application level. LUNs map to physically provisioned storage space in the physical disks that make up a RAID array. The granularity of a LUN is determined by the size of delta map chunks provisioned for the RAID array. A “delta map chunk,” as used herein, is a partition of a LUN. Thus, the physical disks of a RAID array may be partitioned into LUNs, which may in turn be partitioned into delta map chunks. In some implementations, provisioned delta map chunks range from as little as two kilobytes to sixty four kilobytes, with two kilobytes being a typical default delta map chunk size.
Copies of LUNs may be made either for point-in-time system references to track system changes over time or for archival purposes. When copies are to be archived or communicated to another physical platform, they must be transferred to communication buffers and transmitted across a network to the other platform. In conventional RAID systems, communication buffer size has been set equal to delta map chunk size. As a result, when copying data from one RAID array to another RAID array, the number of copy operations that must be performed is equal to the number of delta map chunks to be copied. Requiring that the communication buffer size be equal to the delta map chunk size prevents fine grain copy operations from being performed. In addition, communication bandwidth may be wasted when the communication buffer carries data other than the data desired to be copied.
Another problem with archiving RAID arrays is a collision. A collision is an access by more than one module to the same delta map chunk location resulting in a potential corruption of data at that storage location. Collisions may occur when a source LUN is being archived or transferred to a remote system and changes to the source LUN data are being made on the local system. Collisions may also occur at both the source and destination when a client performs mirror copies to both the source and destination RAID arrays while a source LUN is being archived to the destination RAID array. For example, a collision may occur when a client data storage operation and a sync engine storage operation are performed to the same delta map chunk location. A client data store operation is a write operation by an application to a LUN. A sync engine storage operation is a write operation by a sync engine to synchronize data from one LUN to another LUN. Collision management has traditionally been handled by incrementally copying the LUN and prohibiting write operations to the area being copied.
Accordingly, in light of these difficulties associated with conventional RAID array LUN buffer backup utilities, there exists a need for improved methods, systems, and computer program products for optimized copying of LUNs in a RAID array using buffers that are smaller than LUN delta map chunks.